I receive a lot of material by email – like most folks, but due to my role at Z, a bit more. I got this today…and thought I would pass it along. It comes from the Institute for Southern Studies periodical, FACING SOUTH a periodical about event in the U.S. southern states that is very good and well worth a visit!
INSTITUTE INDEX: Racism and the black unemployment crisis
Unemployment rate for all U.S. workers: 9.1%
Unemployment rate for white workers: 8%
Unemployment rate for black workers: 16.2%
Number of years during which there's been such a wide gap between white and black workers: at least 60
Percent of black men who had college degrees in 1940: less than 1
Percent of black women who had college degrees in 1940: less than 2
Percent of black men who have college degrees today: 10
Percent of black women who have college degrees today: 15
Percent of U.S. population that is black: 13
Percent of U.S. prison population that is black: nearly 40
Number of times more likely it is for a black person to be in prison than a white person: 6
Number of times more likely it is for a black person to be in prison than a Hispanic person: 3
Percentage points by which the prison population lowers the jobless rate for all black men: 5
For young black men: 8
In one experiment by a sociologist, callback rate for a white male job applicant with no criminal record: 34%
For a white male job applicant with a criminal record: 17%
For a black male with no criminal record: 14%
For a black male with a criminal record: 5%
(All figures from "What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Jobs: How Racism, Global Economics, and the New Jim Crow Fuel Black America's Crippling Jobs Crisis," by Andy Kroll,TomDispatch.com, July 5, 2011.)
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